Boston University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Spring 2021: Guillermo Gallego, a graduate in the Questrom School of Business, under the mentorship of Dr. Remi Trudel, assessed undergraduate student willingness to adopt refill habits by using vending machines as a way to stop single-use plastic waste generation stemming from personal care and cleaning products. This research will be sponsored by Professor Remi Trudel, whose research agenda is driven by a desire to understand consumer decision-making in three substantive areas – sustainability, health and diet, and personal finance – so as to provide consumers, marketers, and policymakers with the means to make better, more sustainable decisions for themselves, society, and the environment.

A summer 2021 project: Alicia Zhang interviewed people involved in and concerned with the implementation by the city of Boston of Community Choice Aggregation, a means by which municipal governments can purchase electricity in bulk for their residents, lowering its costs and making it easier to choose greener energy sources. CCA is currently only made possible by one-fifth of the states, but Alicia points out the tool can bring about greater “energy democracy, clean energy jobs and workforce development, and community resilience alongside affordable energy services and sustainability. Through such measures, these CCAs could contribute to equitable regional economies whilst helping cities transition to zero-carbon economies.” She and the class instructor plan to present comments on this potential to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council at their next meeting.

URL: https://www.bu.edu/rccp/files/2021/07/Equity-in-Community-Choice-Aggregation-Case-Study.pdf

In spring 2021, BU Academy student Abhi Lingareddy, under the mentorship of Dr. Dan Li from the Earth & Environment Department and BU Academy Chemistry instructor Victoria Perrone, conducted a research project which measured the impact of various surfaces typically found in urban settings on local temperatures using sensors placed in several locations on BU campus. The main focus of the research was assessing the effectiveness of existing solutions to the urban heat island effect: white roofs, green roofs, and landscaping. The results of this research found that white roofs reduced peak local temperatures while green roofs provided no significant change in temperature, but added ecological benefits such as carbon sequestration and evapotranspiration. The project produced new data relating to surface temperature on the BU campus and provided insights on how sustainability decisions can impact the local air and climate.

During 2020 summer, the team of Gayatri Sundar Rajan, Professor Michael Gevelber, Keeley Bombard, and Professor Nathan Phillips started a research project with the goal of electrifying the majority of Boston University's fossil-based heating energy use. During the first phase of research, they identified system design requirements, and evaluated alternative technologies including GeoMicroDistrict (GMD). In the second phase, Gayatri Sundar Rajan, Sabrina Dilig, Cathy Cheng, and Professor Gevelber reviewed phase 1 findings with industry experts and BU facilities staff, developed an in-depth HVAC and electrical demand analysis for several key building candidates, developed solutions to limit electrical load increase, and determined the cost and corresponding carbon reduction of alternative strategies. In the third phase of the project, they investigated key technical issues to implementing the retrofit electrification strategy on 17 key buildings through assessing the compatibility of the electrification strategy with buildings on the campus steam loops, validating the performance of low-temperature air source heat pumps, and evaluating buildings’ electrical capacities. In Phase 4, they will continue the detailed building-by-building analysis, with an emphasis on steam loops, how summer reheat loads can be met, estimating potential energy saving measures to reduce peak electrical loads and GHG emissions, and updating financial plans.

During 2020 summer, the team of Gayatri Sundar Rajan, Professor Michael Gevelber, Keeley Bombard, and Professor Nathan Phillips started a research project with the goal of electrifying the majority of Boston University's fossil-based heating energy use. During the first phase of research, they identified system design requirements, and evaluated alternative technologies including GeoMicroDistrict (GMD). In the second phase, Gayatri Sundar Rajan, Sabrina Dilig, Cathy Cheng, and Professor Gevelber reviewed phase 1 findings with industry experts and BU facilities staff, developed an in-depth HVAC and electrical demand analysis for several key building candidates, developed solutions to limit electrical load increase, and determined the cost and corresponding carbon reduction of alternative strategies. In the third phase of the project, they investigated key technical issues to implementing the retrofit electrification strategy on 17 key buildings through assessing the compatibility of the electrification strategy with buildings on the campus steam loops, validating the performance of low-temperature air source heat pumps, and evaluating buildings’ electrical capacities. In Phase 4, they will continue the detailed building-by-building analysis, with an emphasis on steam loops, how summer reheat loads can be met, estimating potential energy saving measures to reduce peak electrical loads and GHG emissions, and updating financial plans.

In the summer of 2021, Sidney Hare, an undergraduate in the Department of Earth and Environment, under the mentorship of Dr. Curtis Woodcock, began growing a garden on the rooftop of Warren residence building as part of BU's Campus Climate Lab. The goal of the project is to provide Boston University Dining Services and students with fresh produce grown right on campus. After a successful pilot season, the project is now expanding production and getting more BU students involved. This work engages the Boston University community through exposure to sustainable urban agriculture methods, gives students an opportunity to conduct research on urban gardening, increases the amount of green space on campus, and provides fresh food to BU.

Professors Lucy Hutyra (Earth & Environment, CAS) and Pamela Templer (Biology, CAS) brought a team of students together to investigate how much biological fluxes from BU's campus grounds contribute to the campus CO2 budget. The team measured biological carbon uptake and loss processes from the ecosystems across BU’s campus. The team then digitized the university land cover to scale the results and merged estimates of BU’s fossil fuel emissions. Their findings showed that the lands that comprise BU’s campus were a net source of CO2 emissions. The research team met with BU Facilities Management & Operations to share these findings. As a result, in collaboration with the Hutyra Research Lab, BU will pilot changes to its landscape management practices to reduce emissions. The next phase of the project will evaluate how much difference these landscaping changes make to our emissions and community responses. In addition to putting their research to practical application, the team also submitted a scientific paper reporting their findings for peer review in 2021.

In Spring Semester of 2021, student teams from Questrom’s Masters in Management Studies (MSMS) program analyzed facets of transportation at BU in support of Boston University's Climate Action Plan to "Act on Indirect Emissions" aiming to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Three MSMS teams each considered employee commuting and business travel emissions related to Faculty, Staff, and Student air travel. All of these activities are conducted domestically but also, with increased frequency, internationally. The diverse nature of the MSMS students, all non-business undergraduate degrees, led them to take very broad approaches to analyzing the various dimensions.

The teams’ consulting began with a review of existing analysis on Scope 3 related to air travel to date and interviews with stakeholders associated with this analysis. From there, three key perspectives identified for analysis were GHG, cost, and participation perspectives. Each team executed surveys with key internal and external stakeholders: experts on means and processes to gather data to support the Verified Carbon Standards at BU, energy users and financial experts, and internal and external stakeholders to identify preferences and approaches to modifying behavior at the organizational and individual levels. Opportunities for enhancements and associated recommendations included co-benefits of carbon credit schemes in the U.S. and internationally, ways to integrate offset programs into Concur. Concur is a database used for travel booking, expense reports, and invoice management.

In Fall 2020, a research team consisting of Olivia Henning (undergraduate), Lucia Villalonga (undergraduate), Dr. Jacqueline Ashmore (Earth & Environment; Institute for Sustainable Energy) conducted a project that quantifies scope 3 emissions associated with employee travel at Boston University. Their research found that employee air travel emissions are very significant, and survey results suggest that employees expect to resume normal travel once recovery from the pandemic is achieved. These findings suggest that both offsets and reduction programs will play important roles in BU reaching its net-zero emissions goal. The team plans to reevaluate the work and propose further behavior change programs to reduce flights in the future.

This project came out of the spring 2021 BU HUB Cross-College Challenge Zero Waste course, which tasked students with creating a campus initiative to help Boston University reach its goal of zero waste by 2030. In the summer of 2021, team members Allison Chodes, Muhammad Essa Tabish Chawla, and Keeley Bombard, advised by Professor Rebecca Kinraide, worked together to develop an app to help students sort waste effectively and confidently. The project provided a plan to shape the Recylopedia resource, available on the Sustainability@BU website, into an application to help improve waste management on Boston University’s Charles River Campus. This research team used its Campus Climate Lab funding to research potential options for app development and initiate the process of implementation. The project was taken to the student-led BU Spark! User Design Experience Program to work on the design and functionality of the app. From there, the project will be taken to student software developers at BU Spark! to finalize the app's features.

In Fall 2021, BU undergraduate student Alice Scollins, under the mentorship of Dr. Anne Gianotti and Dr. Abigail Sulivan from the department of Earth & Environment and Lisa Tornatore from BU Sustainability, started a project to investage the ways in which BU undergraduates perceive, decide to engage with (or not), and experience sustainability-oriented educational opportunities at BU. Through surveys, analysis of course enrollment data, and a review of sustainability activities at similar universities, the project compares participation, engagement, and experiences of sustainability-oriented courses across multiple axes of diversity and takes initial steps to create more inclusive sustainability education opportunities at BU. In the first phase of the project, the research team collaborated with members of BU Analytical Services and Institutional Research (AS&IR) to draft and improve their survey. As a result, the survey was approved by the Boston University's Institutional Review Board. During the next phase of the project, the survey will be administered to the undergraduate student body and results will be gathered and analyzed. Ultimately, the goal of the project is to contribute to BU’s efforts to ensure “every undergraduate [is] touched in some way” by sustainability and climate education (as outlined in section VII of the BU’s Climate Action Plan).

As part of the Fall 2020 Innovate@BU Community Impact Challenge, students Ionna Yiannakou and Yuhan Qiu launched ""BU NutriGeeks,"" a dietician-led YouTube channel that provides evidence-based nutritional and educational information as well as tips on how to prepare easy, healthy, and budget-friendly recipes with limited space and/or resources. The team created the channel with the ultimate goal of inspiring the BU community to adopt a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle through a combination of informational tutorials, cooking demos led by nutritional experts, and an interactive platform.

https://airtable.com/shrK4J2qUZ0JfpEYU/tbld4E2SjlxzzjxcJ/viwk8DuQWsyw5NXOV/rectgyimdtE548ok7

This represents FY2021 and FY2022 BU Metrics.

Campus Engagement, Air & Climate, Buildings, Energy, Food & Dining, Grounds, Transportation, Waste, Diversity & Affordability: https://www.bu.edu/urbanclimate/campus-climate-lab/research-projects/

Wellbeing & Work: https://airtable.com/shrK4J2qUZ0JfpEYU/tbld4E2SjlxzzjxcJ
https://www.bu.edu/innovate/11-student-finalists-announced-in-the-new-normal-challenge/